Improvement in shirt-fronts



T. M. DENTHAM.

Shirt-Fronts.

N0. 142,212 Patenied August 26, 137-31 4/ yfi aoww; 3a,

wmmmw UNITED STATES ATENT THOMAS M. DENHAM, OF NEW BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN SHIRT-FRONTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 142,2 12, dated August 26, 1873; application filed July 17, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS M. DENHAM, of New Bedford, county of Bristol, State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Shirt Fronts; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings making a part of this specification.

The design of my improvement is to avoid as much as possible the greatest trouble experienced by shirt-makers to obtain a smoothsitting shirt-bosom, and to avoid the rumpling and indiscriminate bending or bunching up of the bosom where it should maintain a smooth appearancefrom the neck downward to buttoning of the vest. I

It is well known to all shirt-manufacturers, and to any one observing, that a shirt made without a starched bosom, or without any bosom or front, (so called,) will always lie smoothly to the breast of the wearer; and the more thicknesses of cloth or linen in the bosom, when starched, only tends to make the bosom to break and bulge out of the vest-opening, especially when the wearer is sitting or in a stooping or bending position. As the position of the body is changed from an erect position forward, the shirt-bosom must bend or break more or less at the weakest point, or at the opening of the vest.

By my invention I propose to remedy this difficulty as much as possible-to have that portion that must bend below the vest-opening, and that portion exposed to view maintain a smooth appearance.

from the neck downward, the lower portion of the bosom left entirely unstitched to the body of the shirt, and hanging like a false or bib bosom; but with my invention I propose to ning from side to side crosswise of the bosom to be raised, when ironed, separate from the body of the shirt, to form a more limber belt or joint.

In the annexed drawing, Figure 1 represents the shirt-front attached to the shirt according to my invention; on each side, from the points 0 downward to the points A, stitched to the shirt-body; from the points A downward to the points B, left unattached to the shirt-body; and stitched to body again from points B downward to bottom of bosom D.

As thus constructed, the space below the vest-opening,,between the dotted lines across from A to A and from B to B, will, when ironed and raised, form a sort of an ellipse, spring, or hinge, to bend outward more or less as the body of the wearer is bent or stoops more or less, resuming its straight or original shape or smoothness when returning to a standing or erect position, as shown by side view in Fig. 2.

Having fully explained my invention, and desiring it to be understood that my invention may be applied to other shaped shirt-bosoms, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by LettersIatent, is-

A shirt-front without stiffening or lining,

having the portion A B unattached to the body of the shirt, leaving a space between the bosom and said body, substantially as described, and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 14th day of July, in the year of our Lord 1873.

THOS. M. DENHAM.

Witnesses:

R. A. LEONARD, W. H. WATKINS. 

